Literary Precedents for The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms

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Donleavy has cited James Joyce as one of his formative influences, and the use of the Joycean interior monologue, as well as the wordplay, comic moods, social commentary (akin to Joyce's Dubliners, 1914) and mixed feelings about religion are all elements that have their parallel in Joyce's work. Some critics have also cited Samuel Beckett, another writer with an Irish/ elsewhere background, as a significant predecessor, noting Donleavy's own description of his "characteristic mode" as one of "tragicomedy" which echoes Beckett's subtitle of Waiting for Godot, "a tragicomedy in two acts." The void that has appeared in the place of traditional spiritual values in Beckett's plays resembles the condition of spiritual emptiness that hovers over some of Donleavy's characters and is a prominent factor in The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms. The single use of short verse to conclude the final episode of the book is a...